Charles Errock [5] b

 Charles Errock [5] c

[The No] in front of a section title means the location in minutes of the recording. Meant for Sejin to go back to the recording if needed. 

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0] How my dad got to the Railways Job in Peterborough

My parents got married in Port Pirie, and I was born there. My dad initially lived in Port Perie, and his job was there too. He then lost job during the Depression Years and carried his swag, and went from town to town looking for work while my mother stayed home with children. Dad eventually got a job with the Railways. He went to the places sent by the company to work with the gang: Lora, Gladstone, and Yanta. Our family lived in Yanta for a few years. Then dad got transferred, I reckon, about 1938, down to Peterborough. He worked in the railways in Peterborough until he retired. 

One thing good about being an employee of the Railways is that they offer you the housing whereever you may work. So, we lived the railway cottage once my dad got employeed by the railways. I also got the railway housing in Peterborough, then in Port Lincoln, and eventually in Adelaide. Housing cost was never a worry for railway employeees while I was working. It's not like that now. It is all changed since the Railways are privatised. 

3] Back to Port Lincoln.

I'm going to take you back to Port Lincoln because I was missed out a terrible lot. We'll just have to move the parts around later on.

4] My first job when I got to Port Lincoln 

The Railway Company was building two holiday homes at Coffin Bay. And the building works required putting the frames up. My job was to go down and line them all. And to get the lining, there was a migrant camp in the railway yards at Port Lincoln. I had to pull all the linings out of the migrant camp, then cut them up, take them down, and use them for lining the shacks at Coffin Bay. The migrant camp was built by the Railways Institute. The Railways Institute played a big part in the railway workers' life. So, the Railway company was building these two holiday shacks at Coffin Bay for the railway workers from all around the state. I took part in this project as a house builder. 

One of my favourite pastimes was to go underwater like fishing.[?]   So when we're going down there, I thought I had a chance to do a bit of baby's bath. [?] I had a tube out of a car tyre. I made a wooden rack. A thing to put the battery out of my car to fit in that, and then, I put that connector the light to it.[?] I have a spear in the net, and I just tow it along behind, and go along like on the shirt I wore from that. [?]

And, you catch perhaps a few garfish, you might get the odd crab, but I used to get a lot of flathead. The flathead would lay right on the bottom, and just see the two loaves sticking up. So, that was one of the things that I loved to do when I had time. When I went down to Coffin Bay to work on these shacks, with no sense in coming back to Port Lincoln, I would stop down there overnight, so I used to take my gear down there, and I do a bit of fishing afterwards. I didn't have a lot of time for myself, but what time I had by myself, I made good use of. So, building holiday homes for the railway workers was the first job I had in Port Lincoln.  I was fishing in the evening while I was doing this job because I did not go back home in Port Lincoln. 

7] Working in the Tasman Hotel

Of course, I couldn't work at the hotel while I was working away from Port Lincoln, but that didn't take me very long. I soon got that shack job done, and then I was back on the job in the railway depot in Port Lincoln, where there was carriage and wagon making work. I would then go down to the Tasman Hotel to work there in the evening.

During my time at the Tasman Hotel, I learned a great deal. I was only a casual worker, but unbelievably, I was there 13 years, and during that time, they had 13 managers. Now, one of them. Stafford, stayed 18 months.  Frank Earthron [?], Harold Wilson. They stayed there for about 18 months. And then, Frank and Pat Mitchell took over, and they were there for two years. But, apart from that,  there were thirteen. 

I don't know well about the reason for this turnover of managers. Tony Matthews, I got to know him well. One time, he was my mentor. Other times, he was just the opposite; he was my nemesis. A strange man. But I learned a lot from him. 

I never asked why the managers got sacked or why they left, but I think it all had to do with money. That was for sure. Tony once employed a bloke that had been a manager in an electrical supplies department, a high ranking job. Anparently, he had a nervous breakdown. But then Tony gave him the job in the hotel. I asked Tony, "How can you? He may have a nervous break down on the job in the hotel." But Tony said, "Oh well, he is good with figures."  Tony then gave another block the job. And he didn't last very long. As always, I asked Tony why, Tony would say, "Because the bloke is good with figures." 

In those days, the hotel had the Bottle Department, the Front Bar, and the Zoom Bar, and the Cocktail Bar and Dining. At all times, there would be, I'll say, 10 regular employees. But there'd be terrible occasions when we may have up to 20 casuals on the weekend.

I worked a few hours in the Front Bar and in the Turner Bar. I didn't like it there. I didn't like the people. I didn't trust them. The same with the Bottle Department. I I got back to the saloon, the bombing[?] there had everything.[?]  It was 100% right all the time. Of course, up in the Cocktail Bar, they do only "percentages" every week, and now they do it through the tools [?] all the time, that is, automatically. But there used to be a lot of discrepancies in the Bottle Department and the front, but there was none in the Saloon Bar and in the Cocktail Bar where I've worked.

There was never any discrepancies there, but I was only a casual. All these people that came in as managers, it was very hard for their wives because they had to manage the the Dining room part. Yeah. And all the bookings like, you know, and they had no idea where to put what stuff, or what was happening. So, in a few years, they realised that I was the "go to man", especially when Frank Mitchell was there. So, I would help them getting staff [stuff?] and and everything. 

When Frank Mitchell took over. they used to have a chap that used to come in Friday and Saturday nights, and play dinner music from 6:00 to 8:00. Frank rang me up at work one day. He said, "Oh, we don't have a pianist anymore. Do you know anyone?"

And I said, "Oh yeah I do. A friend of mine has just been transferred over to Port Lincoln as the station master.  He is a very good pianist. He would be an ideal person."

So he said, well, do you think you can get him to come down? 

I said, I'll go and have a talk to him. 

So I talked him into it and he said, "What? Am I really going to play?"

And I said, "Well, you've been playing for a long time. You look around the crowd. If there are just older crowd, just play their music. If there's all the young people there, then, play their music, which you will be very keen to do." 

So, that is what happened. So he he was finally for a few weeks and he said to me, " You know, we really need a drummer. And a guitarist.

 And I said, oh, OK. Also, I know I'll look up at Tumby Bay. Ronnie. Mary.

I said he may fill in as a drummer for the bands around there, when they need one. I said perhaps you could get him. We could get him. So, anyway, they contacted him and he said yeah, no worries. He come down Friday and Saturday nights to play the drums. And then there was another lad who was playing the saxophone. He was still learning, but apparently, became pretty good.  So Ronnie Mary knew him, so he got him. So they had three piece band and it went, oh, it was unbelievable. Once the kids were around. But there was no bands in any of the other hotels. And once we got started, well, Friday and Saturday nights, it was Bedlam. Yeah, the the hotel got packed out, you know, they'd be dancing and drinking and everything. And yeah, so. That was. One of the things that I think made my job in the hotel a certainty.

15] I got to know a lot of people through the hotel barr work. 

One of them was a man called Frank Claire. He owned the Eden Club in NSW. He used to buy tuna for the Craft, Inc. He was the Australian contact for the Craft Inc. in America. He was a terrific bloke. One day, he said to me, "With Steph Cole, If I wasn't here, the tournament fisherman, there'd be no opposition, you know? I create the money they're making. Because we barter their fish. Whatever I think and the staff have to buy."

What he had was in a the Government Produce Department. He had a tank there that he could store the fish in. And he had a black man called Barnes who was his manager there.

And when Frank Claire wasn't near by, Barnes would do the business.  But that made a big difference.  I knew Frank Claire very well. As a matter of fact, a couple of times, he wanted me to take my wife and family over to Eden. He said, "I'll give you the accommodation. Won't cost you anything. Just come across." But I was too busy. I had so much to do. I just couldn't even contemplate it. 

Quite a few things happened there. We had a lot of international people stopping there, like holiday makers, Americans, and everything. I never knew there were so many different ways to make a martini until I was working there. Then, when they ask for martini, you say, "How would you like me to mix it?" Because they all have different ideas about how they want it. 

17] Celebrities

There were a lot of celebrities who came there. There was Dame Zara Holt, He was there with some dignitaries. I was waiting on the table, and Mr Freeman, who was the Mayor of Portland. He was a very laid back country person. And I went to the table with my tray and asked Mr Freeman said Dame Zara, "What what would you like to drink? " 

She returned straight back, and said, "What would you like?"
I thought, "That's a bit rude." 

 So I said, "Well. I know Mr Freeman. He usually has a a glass of light beer. I guess he'll have that now. What can I get for you?" And so, she gave me her order, and that settled that. But that's the way she was. Yeah, she took mickey out of him, and I didn't like that. But anyway, that was a thing of the past.

19] Con men

While I was there, we had three con men come to work there. They come to work in the bar in the hotel. One was Bernie Costello. He was a New Zealander,  and he was there for quite a while. He was living with the widow of the chap who had a butcher shop in Port Lincoln. 

Bob Sheer[?], my mate. He used to work with me there one day. He said to me, "You know, this bloke is a con man." And I said, "Well, we'll line him up one night." So one night, we were there when it wasn't very busy. 

After having a couple of beers, we actually knocked off, and Bob says to him, "So, you're a con man, aren't you?" And he said, "Yes, umm, listen, I've never done anyone any harm. I might have removed a bit of money out of their bank accounts."  Haha. So, that was one of them. 

Then, we had a bloke. He came over, and he said who he was when Harold Wilson was the manager. He pitched him a story that he'd been sent by Seymour Matthews. And it was Pierce Matthews Hotel, and he wasn't to tell anyone that he was there, and Seymour wasn't to be contacted. He wanted to keep right out of it, but he was there to solve the problem where money was going missing, and everything. He was there for a while, and we couldn't make head and the tail of him. He was working in the hotel, and we didn't know the arrangement he'd made with the manager. But Saloon barrman, Ronnie Smart, was smart, and he said to me one day, "You know, this bloke is after no good. He is a con man.  I said, "Yeah?" He said, "Yeah".  As it ended up, he left, but some of the money left with him. And when I got back over to Adelaide, I saw him written up in the paper. Yeah, he had been convicted several times, once for acting as a doctor. So some of those cheating involved the hotel money. 

We had another bloke who came there. This young broke was very good at his job, you know? He was there for for two months. On Sunday night, when closed up, there was a place to hide the money. So, the receptionist will come in in the morning and will know where to go and get it. She came in, but there was no money. No nothing and no him. He was gone. But he got caught because a couple of years later, the receptionist Lindsey decided to go for a holiday in WA. And she got on the Indian Pacific. As Lindsey got to Port Augusta, she saw this waiter on the train. But he didn't recognise her. So, when they got to Perth. She went to Dawson Marks and said, well, you know, just by holding the story. And of course, they called the police, and what he had done. He was working for the Commonwealth. Well, he'd taken three months long service leave there. Then, come down to work with us. And then he has gone back up to the road. So, he ended upgetting caught, and convicted. 

And then, we had another bloke there. He was a White Russian. And he just disappeared. No one knows where he went. He just disappeared. So those were interesting things that happened while I worked on the hotel bar. 

23] Politicians

There is one story about Sir Magnus Cormack who was the leader in the Senate in the Parliament. When they first brought in the Breathalyser Test Bill, there was Senator Ben from Queensland who got kicked out the parliament. He said when they were discussing the bill, he said, "Well, take Sir Magnus for instance. You could breathalyse him 24 hours a day, and he'd blow the bloody thing up." He wouldn't withdraw this remark, so he got kicked out. So, I always remembered that, and then, many years later, when I was working at the hotel, Sir Magnus started coming over there for holiday. Each year, with a couple of his mates. The Airlines of SA used to have a plane to Port Lincoln about 9:00 in the morning, and on that plane, there would be all the papers from around Australia. For Sir Magnus to look at me, and sit in the lounge, and you go through a real, your editorials and all the things about politics while he had several Scotch whiskies. And then, he'd go off. I'd get an esky, and go off fishing. Then, he'd come back, go and have a shower and come down,  have several more Scotch whiskey, and then they go out to dinner, and they'll be there untill 11:00 at night. By that time, they would have knocked off several bottles of wine. So, I thought, "Well, Senator Ben. I concur with you", because he would never have been alcohol free.

25] Odd jobs for the hotel 

So, I was the go to boy for Frank Mitchell when he was the manager. And he was at a meeting with the Miss Tasman Hotel,  Every year, they had a Miss Taman Hotel in German honour [?].  And they come about this. I was working. Frank came and said, "Oh, would you come to a meeting in there? [?] We're talking about putting a float [?] into it in the general.[?]" 

I saidI will  chess.[?] He'll think of something for us. 

Anyway, I went back to him after.  I said, "What's that I make? A champagne cart? and set her up on that. [?]

As it happened, tThere was a Danish bloke called Jeff at work. He owed me a favour. He'd done his time as a blacksmith, and then switched to being a boiler maker. So, I said to this chap, "Well, why don't we build a champaign cart. [?]" He said, "Where do we get the material?"

And I said, "Well, I'll have a talk to the works manager. There was a bit of scrap material around us that we can probably buy cheap."  

And he said, "Oh, a big bit of pipe."

So, I managed to talk them into selling us a bit of scrap material from over there. A few weeks later, he came in and said, "I fixed it.Boy." I said OK, and I went out, and saw this monstrosity: it was three times bigger than what I asked him to do. So, what we had to do was find out whether it fits on the truck where it fits down to the electrical wires.[?] and going down the street.

So we got this truck with the fattest one with gear, and luckily the girl that was just turning around at the time, she was a bit of a tomboy. She didn't mind. We had to take it, we put it on the truck. And then we had to take her down to the railways, and put her up with the crane. Put her up  into this. [?] We made a seat in the top of it, you know, just, you know, and.

 Then we'd already gone round, and got the measurements, and everything found out. It was safe to drop. So, but when one of the boat builders there, he was going to make it really fast with the stuff for you. 

But they couldn't afford that. 

So what they've done is that they covered it with the netting, or netting and the paper mache on it. And then, you gave it a quick squirt of other stuff to, ... I forget what it was called.  

But anyway, it turned out very good. And we won the second prize in it.

 For the quote, we won the second prize of that year, and the next year we were a bit more conservative. I built the voiding thing in one of the lounges, so I got that and made a garden setting, and the ladies put all stuff on it, and that one won the first prize.

So, I get given these little jobs all the time, yeah. And then, a couple of times, we were running out of staff, and Frank said to me, "See if you can find a couple of staff members here. We need a couple of blokes. A couple more."  So I managed to get a couple of them. So, I was doing everything, organising the band, and getting stuff for him, and. Yeah. So that was very interesting times. 

29] Tony Matthews again

The trade got that big, you know, it was unbelievable. During that time [?], the Feathers Hotel opened in Adelaide, and Tony Matthews, who was the secretary of the company. There was they had 23 hotels [in Adelaide?] at that time and the Feathers were supposed to be his. And it's going to be his colour too. And we were on holidays, my wife and I.  And I said, "Oh, I'd like to go, and look at the Feathers, but go about 2:30 or something 3:00 when there's no one around. 

Very much for dinner at lunch ... [?]." She said. All right, 

So, we called in there for the 1st time. Then there was Tony Matthews. So, he  bought us a drink, and then he took us all over the hotel. Told us how smart he was feeling, and then, he said, "Now, you've got four children going to high school." Last year, he said, "When children are through school and got jobs, how about coming here and managing the hotel for us."

 Yeah, haha? Not the way they sacked managers! At any rate, then, we had Roxanne,  so, it would be cruel to be doing that.[?]  Yeah, I learned a lot from him. He was a unique sort of person, but he also had a terrible reputation for sacking people.

32] An incident 

Ohh, I had an incident. 

Every year when the Port Lincoln races were on,  because the Tasman Hotel was owned by the South Australian Brewing Company, and Pierce Matthews Hostel released it, Sir Roland Jacobs used to be the manager of the South Australian Brewing Company. 

He would come over every year, and they used to have the race betting on a Tuesday. Then, on the Wednesday night, he'd have a cocktail party. For everyone and myself and another lady who had been there a lot longer than me, Molly Sims, we used to do his cocktail. 

He was very generous. He would leave us both an envelope with $20 or something before he left, you know, for looking after that. And then, he came over for a few years and then changed.  This Mr Isaacson took over the job. And everyone was a bit worried about it. Do you know? We can't afford to have any mistakes in he is around. He's a tough guy. But anyway, he came over, and he introduced himself to us, and he said, now they were promoting a new Echo bear.[?]  And he said, "I want you when you go and take your vacation, take a couple of Echoes." of drinks on your tray. I thought, "Well, OK, that's going to make it very awkward because you've got two drinks here, and you've got to carry two bottles of Echoes as well."

Then, I happened to be serving the racing club. And I've just about gotten all the tables served with their drinks, and someone knocked my elbow, and this cocktail went right over the top of the chairman of the Southbound Racing Club. 

Although that's in to me.[?] So, anyway, I've brushed him down a bit, and Isaacson came out to me, and said, "Oh, look, he's so sorry about that. He said not to worry about it. He said he's OK. He said he always brings a couple of spare suits. He's just gone up to change his suit. He said, "No, just don't worry about it."

 I felt relieved. That was good. Because of his reputation, I thought, you know, I would get a couple of blasts from him, but I didn't. He was very considerate about it.

35] Another incident: I'll probably get the sack. 

Another thing that happened there. It was an interesting place to work where I worked in the cocktail bar. We never had any problem, but the bottle department and the front bar, I always had my doubts about the staff there. I didn't trust them. One of them said to me one day, "Oh, Tony Matthews will be over here next week. You know, if you're gonna survive here in the job, you gotta be able to look at him in the face, and tell him lies."

I said "What?" 

He said, "You have to look him in the eye and tell lies."

I said, "For start, I don't tell lies." 

I said, "I've gone safe, and I turned and walked away." 

And I looked back. He was down in the bar, and he had this bemused look on his face. 

I thought, "OK, but I've never had any problems with Tony." 

As I said, he was a mentor at one stage. He can get on his high horse, and I had a couple of arguments with him. And I thought, "Well, OK, what I said was 100% right." And he didn't like it, that's for sure. 

Oh, well, I'll probably get the sack. 

So, you had a different rule. You weren't allowed to come in the front way when you were working there. You had to come in through the back door. You had to park in the back car park. Couldn't park your car on the front side of the hotel.

So I've got we're thinking that little Ben [?], that I parked the car right in front of his office. He was in the office. I thought he would sack me anyway. So, I walked in, and he looked up and said, "Oh, g'day mate, how you going?" 

And I thought, "Well, OK, I got away with that." 

But really, I had an argument with him, and I knew I was right. So, you know, when I'm right, I'll stand up for myself. When I'm wrong, go quite. 

He would not have forgotten about it. I do not mean to praise myself up, but I thought at that stage there's no way he's going to sack you. It didn't happen. 

38] Crabbing.

So then, all those in Lincoln, I've done quite a lot of things. There was always something to do. Now we used to go crabbing. They said crabs weren't natural there. In the summertime, say, getting around October, November, at the night time, when the tide was coming in, those big blue swimmer crabs were coming. And we go down Talker Bay. A group of us use a bit of wire, and hook these crabs. And that was great. We used to do that a lot. It only lasted for a few weeks each year. Then, there'd be no more. 

39] Building a boat

Once I was. Looking at a pics magazine. One guy that had a plan for a pic set for a boat. You could use it as a rowboat or as a sailing boat. So, at any rate, I said to my mate, "Geez, I wouldn't mind knocking up one of those. That doesn't look too hard." 

So, he had a look and said, "Yeah. OK. we'll make two of these." 

He then said,"Well, where are we gonna get the material

I said, "Well, there's an old carriage down the back that is being wrecked. Go and have a look at that, and see what we can get out of that." 

We used to repair all the Casey Jones and trikes, and there were lots of off cuts.

So, anyway, I went up to the boss, and said, "Oh, can we get some timber around that old carriage down there?" 

He said, "Alright." 

And I said, "There's some bits and pieces in the shop there, on the strip." 

And he said, "Oh, you take out, and I'll have a look at it." 

Then, he said, "Yeah, you can have that for a couple of dollars." 

So that was enough to make the frames for the boat. And then, before we done it, the chap who was lending a hand there, dug flowers. He looked at the plan, and said, "You know, Be careful." He said we've got this a little bit wrong. It's not quite right. And we said, "No, isn't it very nice?"

And then he said, "Well, the most expensive part, if you're going to have to buy two, two lots of marine ply is 18 inches off the length of it. He said, "You'll get away with one sheet."

So we waited and made the framework and everything, going good and screwed it together. Then we went and got the marine ply, and put it on, and they turned out really good. They were beautiful dinghies. But because I'd taken eighteen inches off it. And I have next to the Falcon, and I had surf first on the two surf things on the back, and so I could lift it up, and put it on top of the Falcon. I made a couple of paddles to use, didn't buy all sorts. Had made a couple of pedals. We'd take the boys on some on a Sunday. 

42] Sunday was a Family Day

What we've always done is that I would work Saturday nights very late, usually 2:00 in the morning. And then Nancy, my wife would get up, and she would take children to church and Sunday school. And I would get up and cook lunch. And we always had a roast dinner. Sunday was a Family Day as far as I was concenred. So, unless I had to, I never went near the football club or the hotel. So, we go down to Coffin Bay, put the dinghy in, and the boys go around, and catch a few fish. Sometimes, they go scubadiving, and get a few scallops.

And that is the thing that we've done, and we would sometimes go right down there. We'd go down to Sleaford Bay, and just out of Lincoln. And I'd take half a dozen rabbit traps with me. You can't do it now, but then, you could before been privatised since we left, it's all private roads. You have to pay to get in there. But those days, it's all dirt roads, and so, we go down, and put these rabbit traps down. And I'd go around them.  I would go home and come back about 7:00 or 8:00 at night. 

I would check if I'd caught anything. Perhaps I've got one or two, so I reset them, and I'll get up early in the morning. It only took 15 minutes or something to get down, so there, one morning. I had this. I was getting the rabbit traps out of the ground. I had a fire leader I was using to dig them up, and I got this strange feeling that I was being watched. I looked up, and there's this great big red kangaroo. I knew how dangerous they could be. I'd never seen a kangaroo that big. There's be lots of Wallabies, lots of smaller ones there. But I've never seen a big red kangaroo anywhere near there. So, we stood looking at each other. I was down on the ground looking at him, and he's looking at me. And then all the sudden he just turned and walked away.

So, I got my trap out and went as quick as I could, but yeah, that was frightening. He was a huge. If he had taken me, would have ripped me. Yeah. So, yeah, that was one of the things I wanted to forget about. 

46] Fishing

Dinghy, the crabs, and the like in the underwater, like fishing,  I used to do a lot of that whenever I got time.

My wife, Nancy, hadn't worked very much, but then, when the four children got through school, she took a part time job at Coles because she had worked in miles before she went nursing. 

Then, I sit there on my own. So I'll go down the jetty and see if there's any fish biting. And I got down there, and there was a huge whiting trapped  behind the bulk jetty. I'd never fished very much, and I wish I'd only had the one line, but I put two lines with me, and wound up with them. I caught two or three, but my lines kept getting tangled up and I try to untangle them. I get two or three big whiting. 

 And then, when the boats written[?] on the wharf knocked off, they went and got a net, and knitted the whole lot. Years later, I was talking to one of the chaps at Lincoln South Football Club, he said, "I was watching you. I was laughing at the way you were desperately trying. I could have filled that bucket up five minutes." I said, "We should have come and asked you." OK, that didn't happen. But I got a couple of them.

As a matter of fact, when we got first to Port Lincoln, it was an weekend. And they painted the house out. They hadn't quite finished that. They hadn't done the things around the bottom, and that claimed the doors that all the rooms were planned out the door, wanted to come back, and I said, "No, let's move in. Get the furniture in there, and then you can come back and do that." 

So, they're well. Easy going. 

But. I said to my wife at about 4:00, "I had everything in. You know."

 and she was so .... [?] And a few things that I said, "Oh, I will go down and catch some fish for tea."

When I went down there, there wasn't a sail in sight. There was one boat in the bulk wheat jetty [?]. I hate these fishing lines with a great big metal airline which you didn't use there. But remarkably, I've got twelve little snapper fish, and I never caught another fish for two years. After that, I took them and we had them for dinner. That was enough for us for dinner. 

Eventually, I found out, like I used to go watch the kids down there catching Tommy Ruffs and salmon, and then I got the idea, but I never had time to do it. 

My wife's cousin had a property up in Lipson, and he had a boat. We used to go out with him sometimes occasionally. And when went out, we always cook fish. He lived there all his life. He knew where all the spots were. So, we got a few snappers, a few whiting. One evening, he took me down the Lipson Cove, and we ran a net around these garfish. And we almost had them in, and we snagged the net on something, and they all got away. All the hell was a few that got stuck in the net. But they were used. We take with all our time to pull the net in, you know. 

50] Family trees

Did you have relatives in Port Lincoln? Your parents were living there already?

My wife's parents and grandfather were the original settlers in the West Coast region. Ohh, Abraham. And there's the Carrs, the swappers.

 I've got their family tree book here. When my son was going to Texas College. This girl said to him we're doing the Wishart family tree, and he said she said Errock names were in it. So, he got a copy of the Wishart family tree book.

In the front part of the book, one of my wifes ancestors was burned at the stake. That was in England. 

And then, Nicole says she found that in the Carr's family tree, she was related to just about everyone on the West Coast.  

I wish I had gone through these books when my daughters were in their early teens when they used to go dancing on a Saturday night. They might go to Cummins or Tumby Bay or something, you know. [?]

So the girls who come and look at the family tree book, may check on someone whom they met at a dance. She may find the boy may be her cousin.

53] My youngest son, Dennis's football career was an important factor in moving from Port Lincoln to Adelaide

There were several different reasons I had to consider in moving to Adelaide. The first one was because the Port Lincoln jobs were starting to die because when when the South Australian Railways and the Commonwealth Railways formed the Australian National Railway, the relays and everything went. And it looked like I had to go out and work at bush every week away from Port Lincoln and home.  With four teenagers, it would be too rough for Nancy to manage alone. I did not want to do that. 

My youngest son, Dennis' football career was also important. He had won the junior Colts medal by the biggest margin ever. He held [?] three points in every game except two. And it would probably be never repeated. He played two games. One with the broken finger; in another one,  he had the fluid [?] shouldn't apply [?] Every guy, the Empire and the coach told me, "You want to get Dennis over to Adelaide because he'll make league football." There would be no two ways about that. So, I had to make up my mind. 

Luckly, I was offered a job in Islinton, Adelaide, so, I decided to go to Adelaide. It was the worst job I ever got. But you do what you have to do. That's another story.

56] More about Dennis in Adelaide

When we got to Adelaide, Dennis played football for West Torrance under 15, and then he got up to under 19. So, he was going to Salisbury. 

Coverage at the time was gone [?] but then, he was just on the verge of getting into the the league side. [?] 

Then, he got glandular fever back, and had the six months off from teachers college, and that finished his opportunity to play in league football. But he went on and played a lot of football away from that.

After we learned that Dennis got the glanular fever, his coach at Port Lincoln at West Torrance rang me up. He'd been coaching North Adelaide reserves in the Parklands football.

And he had him in the finals and he asked, "How's Dennis going? "

And I said," Oh, he's alright. I said he still keeps fit, but the glandular fever keeps coming back."

He said, "Well, I'd like to get him into playing in the finals. There's only three games to go,  So I'll have to sign him up."

So. Dennis had to be signed up for three games.

The coach said, "I'll sit Dennis on the bench, run him on, you know. Give him a run late in the game, just getting it going."

And he had done that, and then, they played the song, and they won the Grand Final. So, that was the first grand final played in one and then 

Next year, the Zephyr was another league they formed, and so also they reserved. The amalgamation became the Walkerville Football Club. So Dennis finished his football career with them, and they played in six winning grand finals, and the big grade played quite a few a grade.

Dennis was studying to be a school teacher. He had to have a six months off from Peters College. He went back eventually and he got his diploma. But there were no jobs around at the time, so we went working for a furniture company. And then, when he was 40, he went back to Flinders University, and got his Bachelor of Education. And now he's teaching up. Stephen, the first son was a school teacher. He retired a few years ago. He was a primary school principal.  But Dennis is still teaching. 

=======

Planning for Future stories

after you moved to Adelaide in 1975.

• how many years did you work until retirement?
• I was 41. worked Until I was 57.
•  1975 -  July 1990. 
• Ah, OK, so there's some. 15 years,  41 years of work
• 
  
• Yeah. So in terms of storytelling, now it it can be divided into:
• 1] before retirement and 
• 2] after retirement.
• You know, there was another story from here.
• To go on that, you have to think about . 
• Are there a lot of things to tell, for the15 years in Adelaide? before your retirement.  

This one, at least one chunk we can add  after retirement. 

Port Vincent  after retirement. 1990-1992

• Or perhaps the next step? Well, we went to Port Vincent. 
• My wife had always been a guide leader. Yeah, and the girl guide. Those stations have got a hospital up there. OK, backpack is hot. Yeah, and
•  they also have a lot of schools come there for Aquatics camps. And so the two ladies that were running that one would go to England. 
•  So the talk, Nancy and I were going up to look after it for six months, but we we end up stopping two years.
• OK. Really. Yeah. So this is after retirement.
• Yeah. After it's well, it's yeah.

Lawn ball Port Vincent 1990-1992

• After retirement? OK, that's the other story. Yeah, yeah.
• Yeah, that's the start of another story.
• So OK then. After this, after retirement at the beginning of our retirement, life and what other like?
• started playing  lawn ball. 
• Well, I got the port Vincent. The first thing they said to me. Do you Play bowls, I said no. And as they were always short of valves, both fish in their lower grades.
• I see. Yeah. OK. Yeah.
• And the lady that. That we're working for that rendering and she said, 
• well, I've got a set  Of bowls. You can use those.
• So this boat came out in the Bowling Club and and explained it to me 
• that. And so I started playing bowls there.
•  I see and I played bowls there for. Two years, yeah.
• Lawn balls.  Not not the. Not the ones you knock the sticks down. 
• The ones that you just fall on the ground. 
• That is another Story. Yeah, 

The Abbott Boys Bowling Club story 1998

•  when I came back here after being in Port Vincent, I played forThe Abbott Boys Bowling Club
• And the government decided to sell. The Abbott Boys Bowling Club  to some Russian bloke that came out.
• I wrote to To the premier (SA) about half a dozen times.  
• it was wrong 
• we established the violent club and we just spent a lot of money on it. 
•  we put in Richmond Road into it.  And also we're going to lose it.
• And we did lose it 
• But.Eventually, he wrote me a letter.
• When PM (SA) John Olsen was.
• Yeah. Take it. Take. This is after retirement
• That's when I come back from Port Vincent. I was paying. Bills for the abattoirs.
• That shocked my. Life when I got that letter, eventually.
• this this will be part of the story.
• Chicken heart.  when we get round to Later on.